Q: Reguarding a verbal agreement over renting a residence, will it hold in court?
My fiance had a verbal agreement w the new landowner to do maintenance work in order to pay our rent. He was supposed to be working for $18 HR and we have done our best to try and log his hours.He also keeps every text message and has a log of all calls.he had worked well over what it would take to pay the rent, I think around $600 is what we calculated he had earned and rent is $400.once it came time for rent to be due the land lord decided to change his mind.Now he is threatening us with an eviction and a swift one at that. What leg do we have to stand on?
A:
When it comes down to it, its your word against the landlord's. You need to show evidence of the agreement, whether that is a witness to the conversations or party to them. If you have any sort of evidence of the agreement in writing or communications, such as text messages or emails, you can use that to show that there was an agreement. You can also point to the work that your husband has done to bolster your claim that there was an agreement for your husband to provide work in exchange for rent payments. After all, why would your husband be working for free?
As for 'a swift eviction,' an eviction goes through the Small Claims court in Indiana like any other eviction. That can take weeks or even months for a person to actually be removed from the rental property. That's assuming the landlord can obtain the eviction.
Consult with a local attorney in your area to review the evidence and obtain legal advice.
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